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Springsteen’s ‘High Hopes’ hits top of Billboard

'THE BOSS' IS BACK: The album from the 64-year-old rocker sold 99,000 in its opening week to top the soundtrack of the film "Frozen," which had topped the charts for the past two weeks and sold 87,000 copies last week, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan.
Photo: Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – “The Boss” is back on top of the Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday as Bruce Springsteen scored his 11th No. 1 album with “High Hopes,” more than three decades after first reaching the chart’s apex.

The album from the 64-year-old rocker sold 99,000 in its opening week to top the soundtrack of the film “Frozen,” which had topped the charts for the past two weeks and sold 87,000 copies last week, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan.

Springsteen now has the third-most albums to reach the top of the weekly Billboard chart, surpassing Elvis Presley and trailing only rapper Jay Z, who has 13 No. 1 albums, and the Beatles’ record 19 chart-topping albums, Billboard said.

But “High Hopes” is Springsteen’s first album to have fewer than 100,000 in first-week sales since Nielsen SoundScan began compiling figures for Billboard in 1991, the magazine said.

More than a third of the album’s sales were physical copies sold online, Billboard said, noting that Amazon.com’s special offer of the album paired with a DVD of a Springsteen concert helped boost overall sales.

“Kidz Bop 25,” the newest release from the Kidz Bop series of albums in which children sing pop hits, entered the charts at No. 3, selling 76,000 copies.

Country singer Jennifer Nettles, half of the duo Sugarland, entered the chart at No. 5 with her first solo album, “That Girl,” selling 54,000 copies.

Christian alternative rock band Switchfoot capped the new entries in the top 10 at No. 6 with their ninth studio album, “Fading West,” selling 39,000 copies.

Pop singer Katy Perry’s song “Dark Horse,” featuring rapper Juicy J, kept its top spot on the digital songs chart with 261,000 downloads in the past week, up 7 percent from last week.

Total album sales for the week were 4.4 million, an 11 percent decline from the same week last year but up 4 percent from sales last week.

Album sales for the year to date are 14.1 million, a 14 percent decline from the same period in 2013.

Individual song downloads total 80.3 million for the year so far, off 12 percent over the same period last year.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Patricia Reaney and David Gregorio)